The specifics of the following discussion and specification refer to oriented polystyrene material, hereinafter referred to as OPS but it should be expressly understood that the process and apparatus constituting the present invention are applicable to a wide variety of thermoplastic materials, polymers or mixtures of polymers including such materials as polymers of ethylene, polypropylene, styrene, vinyl chloride, etc.
While individual materials have problems which are often peculiar to those materials and hamper commercial exploitation of them, the polystyrene materials exhibit low-cost, high stiffness and excellent transparency when properly oriented and the proper molecular orientation further enhances the polystyrene material by removing its inherent brittleness in the absence of molecular orientation.
There are various prior art approaches to mitigating the brittleness factor in polystyrene materials, by the use of impact modifiers and the like. However, this decreases the stiffness, eliminates transparency and increases the cost significantly.
Therefore, prior art approaches to remedy the brittleness problem and increase the impact resistance of polystyrene result in certain undesirable properties which did not exist prior to the addition of such modifiers.
Accordingly, if such materials could be used in a relatively unmodified state in manufacturing sheets or strips of this material in a continuous extruding process in which continuous biaxial orientation is imparted to this material and then, without destroying the continuity of the process, molded articles or otherwise formed articles are produced therefrom, all of the desirable physical properties of the material could be realized. At the same time all of the desirabilities, speed and efficiencies of a fully continuous process could be realized in the ultimate product cost.
This integrated approach which combines continuous extrusion, orientation and forming in rapid succession is the crux of the present invention.
Heretofore, the conventional approaches such as with foam sheet materials and non-foamed or non-cellular sheet materials has been to first produce sheeting, store it in rolled form and terminate the initial process at that point. Then, subsequently, the sheeting is unrolled, reheated and subsequently formed into products or articles in its reheated state. As with all thermoplastic techniques, there are three basic interrelated variables involved in processing thermoplastic materials which affect both the nature of the operation and the characteristics of the final product. These variables are temperature, time and physical state, with the latter variable dealing with pressure, stress, etc.
As a general rule, temperature and time should be minimized variables because extended heat history can materially affect the properties of an end product. In the case of OPS, for example, the temperature at which the material must be oriented represents a compromise between levels which are best from a flow point of view and levels which are best from a stress (orientation) point of view. Once a stress is imposed at a given temperature, for example, a molecular orientation is achieved. However, the longer the increment of time involved between the achievement of that orientation and a subsequent operation, the more the stress (orientation) will be relaxed or lost. Accordingly, the degree of orientation of a particular material is not necessarily a sole function of the amount of heat stretching applied to that material to create the orientation since relaxation of that orientation may simultaneously be taking place.
Therefore, a high speed, integrated approach is unique and important not only from a standpoint of cost but also from the standpoint of results heretofore not otherwise attainable.
These inherent advantages of a high speed integrated approach are important in relatively thin products such as those with wall thicknesses of 0.005 to 0.010 inches and become increasingly significant with products having wall thicknesses greater than 0.010 inches. This is due to the fact that conventional systems as heretofore defined, necessarily involve not only greater time/temperature exposure during the production of heating from which the ultimate products are formed, but also involve the reheating and subsequent recooling of the sheet during the subsequent forming operation. Accordingly, the relief of stress occurs during reheating and subsequent recooling as well as during a possible relaxation during the production of the sheeting per se.
Theoretically, the ideal process would be to biaxially orient the thermoplastic material, form and cool it simultaneously. In conventional systems, the time factor is significant and therefore detrimental. Accordingly, the shorter the time factor the less detrimental the effect thereof on the maintenance of a stressed or oriented condition of the material.
Of the conventional methods employed for the production of articles made from material which is biaxially oriented, perhaps the most popular and widely used prior art system involves the extrusion of a sheet from a slot die onto a roll, the temperature of the said roll being controlled, and then through a series of additional rolls which first bring the sheet to an appropriate temperature level for orientation and then longitudinally stretch the sheet between two rolls running at different speeds. This longitudinal stretching or drafting orients the material in the machine direction. The material with the longitudinal orientation is then passed onto a tenter frame to orient it transversely in a manner well-known in the art. Since conventional tentering involves large, heavy equipment, it is also necessary that temperatures be maintained in the sheeting through the use of large, expensive ovens. After the sheeting has been oriented both longitudinally and transversely, it is then rolled and stored for subsequent use.
The forming of OPS sheeting is usually carried out on non-rotating thermoforming equipment with special provisions for the OPS material. It is necessary that the reheating of the sheeting as it is fed into the forming equipment be maintained uniformly throughout its width and length. As the material reaches a satisfactory forming temperature, the stretches which have been imposed during the biaxial orientation must be maintained by adequate clamping devices in order to preclude the sheet from shrinking back to its original dimensions and losing the orientation therein.
Since most non-rotary forming equipment is necessarily intermittent in its operation. the intermittent feeding of oriented sheet in such conventional forming equipment imposes inherent difficulties in the creation and maintenance of uniform temperature conditions throughout the forming area of the sheet.
There are several other approaches which have been used to some extent in the production of biaxially oriented sheeting. One of these, the bubble process, is typically the way much thermoplastic film is produced. By proper control of temperature and stretching, it is possible to produce a biaxially oriented film or sheet using this bubble technique. However, in practice it is proven to be very critical because of temperature uniformity requirements. Also this technique is not usable when it comes to thicker material such as that used in thermoformed articles or products on the order of meat trays, containers and tableware.
Further, there is some equipment in use which simultaneously stretches transversely and longitudinally. This equipment obviates the use of longitudinal stretching rolls such as those previously described, but it has certain disadvantages, namely, the amount of selvage which must be discarded due to the increased scalloped effect resulting from clamps which are necessarily moved further apart in the longitudinal direction in order to achieve such a simultaneous biaxial stretching action.
The molecular orientation of thermoplastic materials, as previously indicated, results in significant improvements in many of the characteristics of certain of these materials. Biaxial orientation is essential in most packaging and disposable products. If orientation is only in one direction, even though properties may be substantially improved in that direction, they are reduced in the other dimensions. Typical of products which are oriented in one direction only are monofilaments and fibers. During orientation, the molecules in the material are shifted from random coil entanglement to a relative alignment parallel to principal axes of stretch. This results in significant improvements in physical properties, optical properties and in improved barrier properties and stress crack resistance.
For example, among the physical property improvements, the impact strength in materials such as OPS are improved on the order of ten times with two to three times the tensile strength of non-oriented polystyrene and as much as three times the improvement in yield elongation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel method and apparatus for forming thermoplastic products by continuous extrusion, orientation and forming in rapid succession in an integrated system.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel thermoplastic product forming method and apparatus which extrudes, biaxially orients and forms thermoplastic products and minimizes, to an optimum degree, the time lag between the extrusion, orientation and forming stages thereof.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an integrated method and apparatus for forming biaxially oriented thermoplastic products in a continuous extrusion, orientation and forming process which achieves higher basic linear speeds than has heretofore been accomplished.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for thermoforming biaxially oriented thermoplastic products of enhanced quality.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more fully apparent with reference to the following specification and drawings which relate to several preferred embodiments of the present invention.